Author: Nils van der Linden

London’s Hammersmith Apollo isn’t what you’d call intimate. And yet Pearl Jam frontman Eddie Vedder makes the 3,600-seater venue feel like a living room, or a cosy campfire singalong. And it’s not just because he’s surrounded by a vintage radio, reel-to-reel tape player, battered suitcases (complete with The Who sticker), various old-timey speakers, assorted instruments, and, later, an actual campfire complete with starry sky backdrop. Most of it’s down to Vedder himself. Seated on stage alone for much of the two and a half hour set, he’s frank, honest, spontaneous, and vulnerable in his words and musical performances. He makes...

Oumou Sangaré is sharing the new video for Kamelemba, lifted from her new album Mogoya. Set in Paris’ 13th arrondissement, the all female Afro-futurist video shot by Chris Saunders references Congolese “La Sape” dandy culture in a deliberately non-gender, European setting. Performances by the female dancers of the Swaggers Group form a retort to the mistreatment of women by the womanisers of Kamelemba, which Sangaré outs in her lyrics. She told us: “It’s about men who show off, who bring women down, about women who fall badly in love. I wrote that song to give advice to our sisters...

As a two-year-old, Mollie Marriott remembers seeing Chuck Berry perform. She was in the front row, “dancing like crazy” on her mother’s lap. Fast forward a few years and she’s still dancing like crazy, albeit on the Borderline stage in front of her own equally enthusiastic fans. Like Berry and the other rock ‘n roll greats she saw growing up as Steve Marriott’s daughter, she has real presence, personality, and power. She endears herself with disarming comments about being excited but frightened, getting hot and sweaty, the challenges of tackling an Aretha Franklin song, and the tightness of her leather...

“We believe in the strength and power of female friendship,” declares JJ Mitchell, one half of Overcoats, “and the things you can achieve when you stand by a woman.” But actions speak louder than words. So Mitchell and her best friend Hana Elion begin and end the show with a long embrace. They spontaneously drape their arms around each other. During moments of emotional intensity, they lock eyes across the stage. And, after the final song, Mitchell piggybacks the injured Elion (torn ligaments) out of the venue. Their singing is equally unified, two voices intertwining delicately as the New...

Be Myself, the title of Sheryl Crow’s latest album, says it all. After flirting with soul and classic country on her last two outings, 100 Miles From Memphis and Feels Like Home, she’s gone back to her roots, embracing the sound that first made her a household name. The decision to be herself once more was clearly personal, as lyrics like “Hanging with the hipsters is a lot of hard work” make abundantly clear. But there’s the added benefit of the new material slipping seamlessly into a live show that, from the get go, leans on her first three...

“I want to talk to you, but I have a problem,” Oumou Sangaré tells an adoring Village Underground crowd who greet each of her songs with jubilation. “My problem,” the Malian songstress laughs, “is English.” But, when it comes to “The Songbird of Wassoulou“, something as trivial as language is no barrier. After all, the vast majority of people rejoicing inside this packed Shoreditch venue don’t understand a single word of the Bambara language she sings in. That’s a testament to her glorious voice, refined and finessed over almost five decades of performance. A singer from the age of five,...

Marianas Trench’s 2015 hit Pop 101 is an insider’s guide to mainstream success. Advice like “a beat you can’t ignore”, “harmony in thirds, not fourths”, and their own spin on Tom Petty’s immortal “don’t bore us, get to the chorus” are certainly worth following. But the tongue-in-cheek single leaves out one essential tip: “put on a blinder of a show the fans won’t soon forget”. And that’s exactly what the Canadian quartet deliver at Camden landmark KOKO. Despite playing a venue far more intimate than those they sell out back home, the Vancouver band certainly don’t dial back their performance....

Hey Violet’s hyperactive performance at North London’s The Garage begins, and ends, with deafening screams from an equally hyperactive audience. To be fair, though, there’s a lot of screaming the whole way through. Like when singer/dynamo Rena Lovelis asks: “How’re we doing London?” Or when she tries to tell the excitable crowd about falling for this city (on her second visit), her love of British accents, and how she could just “listen to you talk and talk and talk”. Or even when, for the purposes of a video shoot, the band perform the big-grooving Hoodie twice, both times prompting en-masse...

With a backstory featuring Stanley Kubrick’s estate, a Los Angeles cult, William Blake’s grave, a near-death experience in the Mojave desert, Jim Morrison’s meditation chamber, and a bust-up at Father John Misty’s wedding, you’d expect Saint Leonard’s Horses’ debut album to be special. You’d be right. The twelve tracks of Good Luck Everybody rock up ‘70s Laurel Canyon folk with big Eagles-style hooks as British (now resident in LA) frontman Kieran Leonard’s slightly-rough-around-the-edges voice as he negotiates such nimble turns of phrase as “swimming through the ashes of the bridges I burned”. Performed live, and in sequence, to an...

Guitarists are not unlike magicians – a lot of practice and work goes into making it look easy. But Dan Patlansky is clearly not one for cheap magic tricks. He pours so much passion and intensity into his performances that how he plays is as powerful as what he plays. Not just his face, but his posture changes whenever he teases, cajoles, or downright strangle’s the at-times incomprehensible notes out of his trusty 1962 Fender Stratocaster. That guitar – and Patlansky’s entire body – gets a full workout during his visceral, sold-out London show that begins quietly with a...

Erja Lyytinen is a phenomenal guitarist. That’s a given. Not just technically brilliant – capable of playing with speed and precision, able to imbue every solo with unique character and tone – she has an edge over many other virtuosos: the ability to cram so much tangible emotion into six strings. So when she delivers the cascading, intensifying instrumental break of the magnificent Black Ocean, it’s as if she’s actually reliving the same dark feelings that went into lyrics like “I need some peace/ Please hear my call”. The jaw-dropping how-did-she-do-that slide solo of swampy Koko Taylor reimagination I’m A...

SHIMMER

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Sound Playlist

a Rockshot Magazine prime post Young children can be mesmerised by almost anything: ants, mud, the rain, a man in a purple dinosaur costume singing songs. Adults, not so much. Between all the Snapchats, news alerts, and seeing what’s happening... See the full version with great photography and video on Rockshot Magazine

a Rockshot Magazine prime post It’s rather pleasant outside and whilst we’re still occasionally getting a whiff of Indian Summer, there’s no stopping the inevitable slide into rain, wind, gutters full of leaves and longer... See the full version with great photography and video on Rockshot Magazine

a Rockshot Magazine prime post Dan Reed is one of those rare musicians who’s achieved success in a band (as the charismatic lead vocalist of Dan Reed Network, he’s sold millions of albums and toured with the Rolling Stones) and as a... See the full version with great photography and video on Rockshot Magazine

a Rockshot Magazine prime post Back in October 2015, Lauren Patel sat down with Hampshire-based band Flight Brigade for a chat about their roots, their music, multiple Glastonbury Festival sets and their forthcoming album release. Fast forward two... See the full version with great photography and video on Rockshot Magazine